Nigeria’s trade sector contracts by 2.43% in Q1 2021

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Nigeria’s trade sector contracted by 2.43% in real terms in the first quarter of 2021. This is according to the recently published GDP report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

Its recorded growth rate represents 0.39% points higher than the 2.82% contraction recorded in the corresponding period of 2020 and 0.77% points higher than -3.2% recorded in the previous quarter (Q4 2020).

Quarter-on-quarter growth stood at -13.10%, which is higher than the quarter-on-quarter growth recorded in the first quarter of 2020 at -13.79%.

READ: Finance and Insurance Sector contributes 3.36% to GDP in 2020

However, in nominal terms which do not take into account the impact of inflation, the trade sector’s year-on-year growth stood at 0.13%. This indicates an increase of 0.4% points when compared to the contraction of 0.27% recorded in Q1 2020.

A cursory look at the trend shows that the last time the trade sector recorded positive real term growth was Q1 2019 when it posted a 0.85% real GDP growth. This implies that the sector’s negative performances in recent times might not be attributed to the pandemic.

READ: GDP: Agriculture sector grows by 2.28% in Q1 2021

What you should know

• Nigeria’s economy recorded a tepid growth of 0.51% in the first quarter of 2021, marking two consecutive quarters of growth following the economic recession recorded in 2020.
• The oil sector accounted for 9.25% of the quarterly GDP, while the non-oil sector accounted for 90.75% of the total GDP.
• Real GDP stood at N16.83 trillion in the period, while nominal GDP was estimated at N40.14 trillion.
• Trade’s contribution to GDP was 15.61%, which is lower than the 16.08% recorded in Q1 2020, but higher than the 15.46% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2020.
• The trade sector real GDP was estimated at N2.63 trillion in Q1 2021, with nominal GDP standing at N5.39 trillion.